40 HELIOPS FRONTLINE T he shipborne Ka-52K is intended primarily for operations from amphibious assault landing ships. Its main roles include armed patrolling over land and sea, fire support of naval infantry units during assault landing operations and anti-landing defense.The Ka-52K was initially slated to be commissioned with the RNA in the mid-2010s, but the program hit delays and cancellations; now it is expected that thefirst production-standard Ka-52Ks will be handed over in 2021 at the earliest. As Kamov designer general Sergey Mikheev recalls, the firm Russian MoDrequirement for a dedicated landing deck-capable derivative of the Ka-52Alligator in the late 2000s proved to be an unexpected but otherwise muchwelcomed turn for the program; in fact, it happened only thanks to the interestin procuring the Mistral-class ships. The in-depth analysis on the suitability ofthe helicopter for operations from rolling and pitching ship desks, where theundercarriage strength would be the limiting factor, derived a positive result.The designers, who were responsible for the undercarriage in the past, hadconsidered such extreme loads. There were no issues at all with the integrationof anti-ship missiles as the Kh-35 had already been tested from the Ka-27; so, itsintegration onboard the Ka-52 was deemed to be a straightforward undertakingprovided that funding was made available. The interest in a shipborne derivative in Russia appeared in 2008, as theRussian MoD proceeded at the time forward with an ambitious plan to purchasefour large amphibious assault, command and power projection ships fromFrance. The aviation group of each ship was to include up to 16 helicopters;a mixture of attack Ka-52Ks, assault transport Ka-29s and transport/SARKa-27PS’; the ratio between the three types would depend on the specificmission requirements.

MISTRAL DESK TRIALS

The first Ka-52 prototype carried out the impromptu evaluation of the desksuitability and undercarriage design, operating for one day off the flight desk ofFrench Navy amphibious assault ship Mistral during her visit in St Petersburg,Russia in December 2008. It was the pinnacle of the large-scale promotionalcampaign sponsored by the French government. This was, in fact, a personalundertaking by then French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, who had energetically

HELIOPS FRONTLINE 4142 HELIOPS FRONTLINE HELIOPS FRONTLINE 43 A close-up view to the port wing in folded (stowed) position, carrying a six-round launcher unit for the 9M120-1 Ataka-1 anti-tank promoted the Mistral sale to Russia. His Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, guided missiles (Alex Mladenov) had eventually agreed to purchase the ships. This act has been portrayed as an appreciation of the much-needed French political support that Russia received soon after the war with Georgia over the territory of South Ossetia in August 2008. The ship sale was also a significant support that the French government was keen to provide to national shipbuilder DCNS which had struggled with an unimpressive order book at the time. In November 2009, even before the completion of the tender that had to select the preferred contractor to build the Russian Navy new power projection ships, the French government had sponsored a visit of Mistral in St Petersburg in Russia, with the main intent to showcase that the ship could meet the helicopter suitability and other requirements raised by the Russian Navy. A Kamov team, led by Mikheev, was also invited to visit Mistral and bring its helicopters for some limited compatibility demonstration. Three helicopter types were slated to be tested; a Ka-52 owned by the Kamov plus a Ka-27PL and Ka-29, both belonging to the RNA, operated by the Northern Fleet’s 380th Independent Helicopter Regiment stationed at Severomorsk-1 airfield near Murmansk. During the testing, the Ka-52 was restricted to use the ship’s rearmost landing spot only. The reason for this was related to the concern of jettisoning the rotor blades in the event of crew ejection due to bad landing approach or failure of an essential system. According to Mikheev, who observed the Ka-52’s landing on Mistral, sailing at a full speed in the Gulf of Finland, the helicopter had arrived and touched down the desk ‘just like as it was at home’. Then the desk servicing crew of Mistral promptly approached the Ka-52 with a fuel hose, demonstrating the ability to perform ‘hot’ refueling with rotors turning. After filling the tanks with gas, the helicopter lifted off under applauds by the guests and hosts from the Mistral’s crew. The landing and refueling cycle was repeated three times and then the helicopter departed for Levashovo after performing a low-level/high-speed pass over the desk.

44 HELIOPS FRONTLINE44While the Ka-52 is being secured at the flight desk, a groupof the Mistral desk-servicing crewmen line-up in front for aphoto (Sergey Mikheev)

HELIOPS FRONTLINE 4546 HELIOPS FRONTLINESide-on view of the first pre-production Ka-52K in the fully-folded (i.e. stowed) configuration, with the rotor blades secured with arigid restraint system providing resistance to strong winds and the stub-wings folded rearwards. (Alex Mladenov)

HELIOPS FRONTLINE 47 TOP: The Ka-52’s first prototype seen during testing on the The ship survey had revealed that the height of the hangars and the aircraft landing deck of the large ASW ship Vice-Admiral Kulakov in elevator size is sufficient to house both the Ka-52 and Ka-27/29 families, but Barents Sea near Murmansk. next to elevators the height was lower than the required minimum, rendering (Vitaly Lebedev archive) impossible to move the Ka-27 and Ka-29 from the elevator into the hangar and BOTTOM: Sergey Mikheev posing back. This, together with a good many other elements of the ship structure, for a photo together with test pilot Vitaly Lebedev (to the had to be redesigned; the list of improvements added to the Mistral’s Russified left) and test navigator Vladimir derivative had also included strengthening the hull for operation in extreme Yurtaev. (Vitaly Lebedev archive) Northern climatic conditions with ice on the sea surface, providing a heating system for the flight desk (needed for operating in extreme cold weather conditions in order to prevent ice accretion) and arming the ship with surface-to- air systems for self-defense as well as installing Russian-made navigation and communications equipment. The contract between the Russian MoD and a consortium made by France’s

48 HELIOPS FRONTLINE48 Ka-52K seen landing on the desk ofDCNS and Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corp for purchasing the ships was Admiral Kuznetsoveventually agreed in June 2011. It covered the purchase of two modified Mistral- aircraft carrier in theclass ships, to be built at the STX shipyard in St Nazaire, France, with an Barents Sea, July 2016. (Kamov)option for two more to be built in Russia at a later stage using all the technicaldocumentation developed for the first pair. The first of the two France-builtships ordered for the Russian Navy, named Vladivostok, was slated to be readyfor hand-over in November 2014, earmarked to be operated by Russia’s PacificFleet. The second ship, named Sevastopol, was slated to follow soon afterwards,again to be delivered to the Pacific Fleet.

NAVAL-SPECIFIC DESIGN FEATURES

The supplement to the Ka-52’s technical and tactical assignment(specification) issued by the Russian Air Force and Russian Navy called for thedevelopment of a dedicated shipborne version designated Ka-52K (internalKamov OKB designation Item 820). It got a newly-designed rotor column withmanually-folded rotors, new radar, an all-new aircrew life-support system, anew air conditioning unit, a newly-added emergency flotation gear and new

HELIOPS FRONTLINE 49 The second prototype of the Ka-52, ‘062’, was utilized as the test bed for a range of design navigation aids for deck landings. The airframe also features enhanced corrosion modifications implemented on the Ka-52K such as the shortened, resistance while the stub wings were required to fold, together with the rotor, in folding wings and the folding rotor order to reduce the footprint when stored inside a ship’s hangar or on crammed blades (Alex Mladenov) flight desks. It also introduced a new-design centralized refueling system and the KSU rescue system for SAR operations in sea environment. The shipborne Ka-52K, christened by Mikhev Katran (Spiny Dogfish), retained both the targeting suite and weapons mix of the baseline model unchanged as well as the powerplant and transmission. The most complex task at the Kamov OKB was to design the folded rotors as the design solution, used in the 1970s on the Ka-27, could not be implemented as it is on the Ka-52K. The reason is the novel design of the Ka-52’s rotor blades that feature semi-rigid suspension and torsion bearings in the form of steel plates. The resultant design solution was non-standard and offered manually-folding rotor blades with folding and unfolding time of around one minute; the blades have no additional operating limitations imposed compared to those of the land-based variant. As Mikheev explained, the Ka-52K’s wings were initially planned to fold upwards and even a scale model with this particular folding scheme had been demonstrated on scale models on several defense shows. Later on, however, it turned out that such a wing folding scheme would be incompatible with the engine cowlings when opened to enable the ground personnel to perform routine engine inspections or maintenance. As a result, a new folding scheme had been developed using shortened movable sections of the wings stowed aft, rotating around a hinge on the trailing edge, next to the weapons pylon. This new wing folding scheme had no adverse effect on the flight performance and combat load but due to the shorter-span wings (compared to the wings of the land-based variant), the shipborne Ka-52K is provided with only four weapons pylons compared to six of its land-based forebear while retaining the same load-carrying ability. Moreover, as Mikheev noted, the inner wing pylons had been strengthened in a bid to be made able to carry up to 1,000kg (2,200lb) of weapons each. This, in turn, would enable the Ka-52K to take onboard two Kh-35 anti-ship missiles. This new ordinance load, however, would require integrating

50 HELIOPS FRONTLINE50 Ka-52’s second prototype, ‘062’, shownan all-new radar for long-range target detection and missile designation. The here armed with a Kh-35U anti-ship missilecurrent Ka-band FH-01 Arbalet-52 (Crossbow), inherited from the ground-based on the reinforced interAlligator, is optimized for overland use and would be ill-suited for anti-ship starboard stub-wing pylon (Kamov).missions due to its insufficient range, extending to no more than 11nm (20km).That is why the Ka-52K is planned to be equipped in the future with a X-bandradar with a range exceeding 150km (81nm) when employed to detect and tracklarge ships. For the Ka-52’s ship-borne derivative Phazotron-NIIR had proposed a newdual-band radar, based on the FH-01 Arbalet design and featuring an additionalcentimetric-wavelength channel (working in the X-band, emitting at 3cmwavelength). It would be optimized for detection of sea surface targets, capableof detecting large ships at a distance of between 150 and 180km (81 to 97nm). Phazotron-NIIR’s designer general, Yuriy Guskov, maintained that, inprinciple, the dual-wavelength capability could be provided by both the originalmechanical-scan parabolic antenna of the FH-01 Arbalet-52 (by utilizing twoseparate emitters for the milimetric and centimetric wavelengths) or alternativelyby introducing a purpose-designed active electronic-scan phased array (AESA).The former option, however, is considered as being far more affordable and theAESA may not be implemented until the early 2020s. The Russian MoD had notyet made a firm decision on the radar type to be used on the follow-on Ka-52Ksas the four pre-production examples built at the AAC Progress in 2015 and 2016retain the Ka-52’s original millimetric-wavelength set. The huge Kh-35 anti-ship missile had already been test-fitted onto the innerwing pylon of the second Ka-52 prototype, serialled ’062’, which was alsoused as a test-bed to evaluate in flight the forward-folding wing design and therearwards-folding rotors.

MORE SEA TRIALS

In August 2011, the Ka-52’s first prototype underwent extensive shipsuitability trials, operating off the small deck of the Russian Northern Fleet’s

HELIOPS FRONTLINE 51 Ka-52 ‘061’ seen hovering next to the bow of Vice-Admiral Kulakov (Vitaly large anti-submarine ship (Project 1155) Vice-Admiral Kulakov sailing in Kola Lebedev archive) Bay, in the Barents Sea. The choice of this ship was a compromise solution since the landing desk of Vice-Admiral Kulakov was judged to be too small, able to accommodate only two Ka-27 helicopters. However, there was no better alternative to be used for sea trials at the time since the lone Russian aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov, was in a prolonged repair. The helicopter was flown by Vitaliy Lebedev, a Kamov test pilot with rich naval flight operations expertise and experience under his belt accumulated on the Ka-25 and Ka-27 helicopters, flown predominantly from small-size ships. The second crew member was test navigator Evgeniy Savin. Ka-52 ‘061’ deployed to Severomorsk-1 airfield near Murmansk and commenced the desk suitability flight testing campaign on 31 August. In two weeks, it accumulated 35 sorties with numerous landings on the deck of Vice- Vice-Admiral Kulakov when moored and on the move in the Kola Bay, exploring in full the capabilities of the Ka-52 to land and take-off from rolling and pitching desks. The maximum desk pitch during these operations reached 50 and the wind speed was 20m/s (about 39 kts). The ship’s stern displacement experienced at the maximum pitch was around 0.5m (1.6ft) in sea surface state one, making landings on the small desk much more challenging than those on the much more stable large amphibious assault ships. Lebedev flew the shipborne trials with landings using all possible methods, including a parallel closure with subsequent lateral movement to hover over the desk center. The program also included exploring the go-around capabilities of the helicopter in various emergency situations; the crew members noted that the Ka-52 can perform a safe go-around at any point of the glideslope and also during a rough landing. The list of the shortcomings revealed during this testing campaign though included the poor visibility over the nose when closing to the desk, which size was limited by the hangar wall. Mikheev, however, tended to comment that the Ka-52K is intended for operations from the desks of large-

52 HELIOPS FRONTLINE52size ships so this problem is not so acute and would not necessitate any radicalre-design. At the same time, Lebedev noted that the Ka-52 is even better suitedfor shipborne operations compared to the Ka-27 family thanks to its lowermaximum height (by 410mm) and the corresponding lower center of gravityposition in combination with the longer undercarriage base (the distance betweenthe front and main undercarriage units). As a result, these features had renderedthe Ka-52 much more stable when on the moving ship desk. In addition, thedesign of the main undercarriage unit shock absorbers enabled to shorten thelift-off time.

IN DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION

The Ka-52K development contract between Kamov and the Russian MoD waseventually signed in 2012. It called for a full-scale development and constructionof four pre-production aircraft at the AAC Progress. The contract price amountedto Roubles 3,396 billion (equating to about US $110 million at the time). Then,a contract between Kamov and AAC Progress for the production of fourhelicopters was inked on 16 September 2013, with all the helicopters originallyslated to be handed over until October 2014. Following this, a batch of 32production-standard Ka-52Ks were to be delivered to the Russian Navy’s aviationservice from 2015 onwards, under a separate contract signed between the AACProgress and the Russian MoD.

The original development program schedule called for the first experimentalKa-52K to be handed over to the Kamov OKB for full-scale testing and evaluationin 2013, while all four examples ordered had to be delivered by October 2014.The program, however, suffered from a serious delay due to the need to solvenumerous technical issues, with all the new technical solutions initially beingtested on the Kamov-owned Ka-52 prototypes and pre-series machines. Themain reason for this slippage had been attributed to the constantly changingrequirements of the end customer, the Russian Naval Aviation. It led, in turn, to agood many design alterations that required time and effort to be tested and thenimplemented on the aircraft at the production line. The first pre-production Ka-52K shipborne helicopter (c/n 01-01) made itsmaiden flight on 7 March 2015 at the manufacturer AAC Progress’ airfield inArsenyev, Russia, flown by the Kamov OKB test pilot Nail Azin and test navigatorAlexander Shveikin. Four months later this machine was displayed in public forthe first time at the Naval Salon in St Petersburg held in July 2015; next to it theproposed for integration Kh-35U and Kh-38E missiles were shown. Then theKa-52K was displayed at the MAKS-2015 air show, held at Zhukovsky airfieldnear Moscow in August, only on the static display. The eagerly-anticipatedcontract covering the delivery of 32 production-standard Ka-52Ks was inked on8 April 2014 by the Russian MoD and AAC Progress. The first 12 of these Katranswere to be ready for delivery already during 2015, but later on the hand over dateslipped to 2016. At a later stage, however, the production contract was canceledand it is now slated for a signature not before 2019. Also in 2014, Russian simulation technology specialist, TsNTU Dinamika, wasawarded a contract for the delivery of two simulator training complexes for theKa-52K, with delivery deadline set at 25 November 2014. The first of these wasrequired to be set up at the Russian Naval Aviation Combat Training and AircrewConversion Center at Yeisk while the second one was earmarked for installationat the naval airbase in Nikolayevka north of Vladivostok.

HELIOPS FRONTLINE 53 MISTRAL DEAL CANCELLED The Ka-52Ks was originally intended to be operated from the two Mistral- class amphibious assault ships, with each of these able to take on board up to eight Ka-52Ks, in addition to eight more Ka-27/29s. The Mistral contract termination by mutual convenience was followed by the prompt return of the payment for the ships to Russia, in the amount of nearly Euro 1 billion. At the same time, as Mikheev claimed in August 2015, nobody in Russia had been rushing to cancel the Ka-52K’s production order. However, after the eventual French government refusal to hand over the ships in 2014 due to newly-raised tensions surrounding Russia’s involvement in the crisis in Ukraine and the subsequent termination of the contract by mutual convenience in August 2015, the Ka-52K production contract was also canceled, set to be reviewed in the future, when Russian-built large amphibious assault ships will be ordered. In addition to Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, the Russian Navy currently has only two ship classes that would be suitable, at least in theory, to carry the Ka-52K – it is Project 1174 Ivan Rogov, which can accommodate up to four helicopters (but none of the three ships of the class is currently in operational use), while the newly-built Project 11711 Ivan Gren’ and Petr Morgunov can take up to two. Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corp claimed in 2015 that it can propose larger assault landing ships, capable of accommodating of up to 16 helicopters but the first of these is set to be ordered in 2019 and would be not ready before 2023 at the earliest.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT PLANS

According to Mikheev, the Kamov OKB is well suited to develop follow-on Ka-50 and Ka-52 derivatives for naval use. One of his novel proposals calls for an airborne early warning (AEW) version, utilizing an array of conformal radar antenna panels for 360° coverage and electronic boxes housed in external pods.

54 HELIOPS FRONTLINE54Mikheev claimed that such a design is going to be better than the current Ka-31– designed in the late 1980s – that features a large rotating antenna under thefuselage that creates huge stability and control problems and requires the useof a sophisticated automatic flight control system. The resultant AEW helicopterbased on the Ka-50 or Ka-52 will be much more compact and boasting aconsiderably higher performance than the Ka-31. In regard to the naval-specific features of the Ka-52, Mikheev is sure thatsome of these could be also used with success on the land-based version. Thisis especially true for the folding rotors, which are a useful feature for helicoptersoperated in dessert or extreme cold conditions. The land-based Ka-52 withfolding rotors and wings has a much smaller footprint and therefore can beaccommodated in small-size hangars for ease of its servicing in hot climate. Thesame is true for helicopters operated in Arctic conditions, where small heatedhangars can be used for helicopter maintenance and storage. Egypt is the first export customer for the Ka-52K, which staged a tender fornew shipborne attack helicopters and in May 2017 the Katran offered by Russiaarms export monopolist agency Rosoboronexport was announced the winner,while Airbus Helicopters lost the competition, offering its Tiger. A contract of anundisclosed quantity of export-standard Ka-52Ks for Egypt is expected to besigned until the end of 2017, with first deliveries expected in late 2019 or early2020. In September 2017, a Chinese military delegation visited the AAC Progressplant to evaluate the production process. It was hinted that the delegation hada special interest in the Ka-52K, considered as a candidate to enter into servicewith the naval air arm. If approved by both governments, a Ka-52K contract forthe Chinese naval aviation arm is expected to be inked in 2018 or 2019, with firstdeliveries taking place two years afterwards.

FIRST TESTING PHASE COMPLETED

In April 2017, Russian Helicopters reported that the Ka-52K has successfullycompleted the first phase of its comprehensive naval testing program includingdeck operations. It took the participation of two pre-series helicopters, whichwere then transferred to the Kamov flight test and maintenance facility inChkalovsky near Moscow for a detailed technical examination after the prolongedon-sea operation in aggressive environment and introducing some modifications. The first phase of the naval testing took place from late 2016 to early 2017,with one of the helicopters operating off the desk of the Russian navy aircraftcarrier Admiral Kuznetsov, which sailed from its base in Murmansk to theeastern Mediterranean to support the Russian military campaign in Syria. Thepair of Ka-52Ks flew only testing and evaluation sorties in proximity to the ship,including firing of 80mm rockets and the 30mm 2A42 gun. According to Vladislav Savelyev, deputy director general of RussianHelicopters holding responsible for the sales, the Ka-52K completed successfullythe naval testing effort and got an approval from the Russian militaryairworthiness authorities for basing on the aircraft carrier desk for routine combatoperations. As Saveliev noted, the Ka-52K testing will continue, including off thedesk of Admiral Kuznetsov. In July 2017 one of the prototypes completed a shorttesting program off the desk of the frigate Admiral Gorshkov in the Baltic Sea toevaluate shipborne compatibility details. The second phase of Ka-52K testing was launched in August 2017 andcovered the resistance to high-intensity electromagnetic fields of helicopter’savionics and armament. The new inertial navigation system was also set for acomprehensive testing. v